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Saturday, August 15, 2015

Tons Of 'Star Wars' News From D23, Including The First Look At The 'Rogue One' Cast

Disney’s D23 Expo is currently going on right now, and while
I have almost zero interest in being there in person (crowds stress me the hell
out), this year is interesting solely because of Star Wars
(I don’t care about being the first to see new Marvel stuff, not even at all).
We’ve already heard that there won’t be any new footage from The ForceAwakens, but there are a ton of other things going on in that far,
far away galaxy, and Disney and Lucasfilm unveiled some new info about the future
of the franchise, and there’s a few badass nuggets to be sure.

We’ll start out with The Force Awakens.
While nothing super new has been revealed, they did unveil a new poster from
Drew Struzan, who did those iconic posters for the franchise. Take a look at it
for yourself (thanks to Gallery 1988).

You get a good look at Harrison Ford’s new grizzled Han
Solo, as well as Daisy Ridley’s Rey, looking tough as hell. By far the coolest
thing about this image is that you see Finn (John Boyega) with what certainly
looks like Luke Skywalker’s lost blue lightsaber, the one that he lost with his
hand at the end of The Empire Strikes Back, and that has been
rumored to be the impetus for this entire film. Not only did it belong to Luke,
it belonged to Anakin Skywalker back in the day before he became Darth Vader,
providing a nice through line and some connectivity within the franchise.

Next we’ll move on to what we’ve been calling the
Anthology films. That’s apparently changed, as they’ll now
be known as Star Wars Stories. Check out this image for the
upcoming Rogue One with an adjusted logo.

Much more exciting than that name change, however, is that
there is now a first official photo of the cast, as well as news about a bunch
of new additions to the call sheet, including some total badasses.

Directed by Gareth Edwards (Godzilla),
Rogue One recently began filming—Edwards reportedly recorded
a video from set for D23—and this photo shows off stars Felicity Jones, Diego
Luna, Riz Ahmed, Jiang Wen, and Donnie Yen. The idea of Donnie Yen in a
Star Wars movie is just fucking incredible beyond belief. When
I saw this image for the first time, I may have squealed in delight.

I dig the look of these folks. They’re not your typical
squeaky-clean heroes, they look more like pirates, mercenaries, and
ne’er-do-wells, which makes sense given what we know of the plot. Set between
Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, the
action has been described as a heist where the Rebels steal the plans for the
first Death Star. If you need to infiltrate an Imperial base and abscond with
some pilfered documents, who better to employ than thieves? Jones, Ahmed, and
Luna play resistance fighters, leaving the nature of the rest of this motley
assortment up in the air, but they look like they’ve seen some shit in their
days.

The film has also been described as a war movie—there’s not
going to be much focus on the Force in these Story films—and
Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy just added:

“Rogue One takes place before the
events of Star Wars: A New Hope and will be a
departure from the saga films but have elements that are familiar to the Star
Wars universe. It goes into new territory, exploring the galactic
struggle from a ground-war perspective while maintaining that essential Star
Wars feel that fans have come to know. Gareth is such an
innovative director and I’m so excited to be working with him and the
extraordinary ensemble cast he’s selected for Rogue One.”

Also, not pictured here, are Ben Mendelsohn, rumored to be
the main villain (which is the best news ever), and Forest Whitaker, who are
both now confirmed for the film. And that’s not all. Hold on to your asses,
because they announced that Mads Mikkelsen and Alan Tudyk are both joining the
Rogue One party. No word on Mikkelsen’s role, but Tudyk’s
character will reportedly be motion capture.

I like the sound of Rogue One more and
more as details continue to emerge.

They also revealed details about Star
Wars additions to the Disney theme parks. One is going to be at
Disneyland in Anaheim, while the other will be at Disney Hollywood Studio in
Orlando, and they will be roughly 14 acres. There will be a Cantina, characters
from all eras of the saga, and a couple of signature attractions that sound
awesome. One lets you pilot the Millennium Falcon, which, if you’re anything
like me, you’ve been dreaming about your entire life. The other will let you
tool up and fight stormtroopers, which is another item I would like to be able
to check off my bucket list. Assuming I ever go to these places, which is
rather unlikely, because crowds and leaving the house are stupid, but who
knows, I might actually venture out for this.